Is the end of the Constellation program the end of human spaceflight for the United States?

So it looks like Orion is going down the tubes along with the rest of Constellation. NASA officials are saying that this is not the end of human spaceflight for NASA, because hopefully the private sector will step in and provide the vehicles for NASA.





My question is - isn't that what we're already doing? It's not like NASA designs and builds its own vehicles, it buys them from Boeing or Lockheed Martin, if I'm not mistaken LM was designing Orion, so what exactly is their plan now?|||There is no reason to continue manned spaceflight at the moment. There's nothing to be done in space by man that can't be done by machines -- cheaper, better, and safer. Continuing to blow money on putting astronauts into orbit would be propaganda money at best.





You are incorrect about the private sector. Yes, Boeing, Lockheed, etc. design and build the things, but they don't design them and build them to their own random specifications, like building the next model year Ford Taurus. NASA gives their specifications, around which machines are designed and engineered, etc. They approve, or they say, "Try again," until everyone is on the same page. Very importantly -- NASA and by extension the federal government of the United States *pays.* It's a symbiosis.





It will continue to happen that way, because eventually NASA will get tired of being pitched vehicles that they don't have any need for.





But manned (or woman-ed) flight? Absolutely unnecessary.